I’ve been reading again through one of the books that changed my life, Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel. One of his chapters talks about wonder, and he quotes Abraham Joshua Heschel, who said on his deathbed, “Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.”
Both Heschel and Manning lament that, “As civilization advances, [our] sense of wonder declines.” Because we get so caught up in our plans and projects, our busyness and activity, with ourselves, that we forget to take time to bask, to celebrate God’s glorious creation–“We grow complacent and lead practical lives. We miss the experience of awe, reverence, and wonder.”
The video below is an absolutely stunning time-lapse video from Yosemite, taken by Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty. It was a reminder to me that there is so much beauty in the world, if I’ll only take a second to step back, open my eyes, and look up.
A trip to Yosemite has definitely been added (bold and underlined) to my bucket list.